A Gamer Girl Blog!

3DS XL

Monster Hunter! One of Capcom’s most popular franchises these days. It’s a fan favorite with a die-hard core group of players. Many gamers who aren’t in this core group can find themselves overwhelmed by the vastness of Monster Hunter. There isn’t much in terms of training and orientation in the main Monster Hunter games, unless you have the patience to sit and read tons of little Hunter’s Notes in the menu. I know I sure don’t.

I started playing Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate a few years ago. The graphics are cool, I love the monsters and the collection aspects of the game. But the actual gameplay I found to be very difficult. In addition, the monsters have different elemental types, of which I knew nothing b/c I didn’t read the Hunter’s Notes. It’s just not a very approachable game, and since everything is based on missions, you don’t have much freedom or storyline. You can’t even necessarily ask friends for help either, as many quests are based on rank. The hardcore players rank up really fast and only the charitable ones will spend their time helping you get up to speed, and even then the noobs tend to simply rely on the higher ranked players and not really learn the game.

At least, that has been my experience. I’ve been WANTING to like Monster Hunter, but I’m just not there in terms of knowledge about the monsters or having the determination to rank up without an interesting story line to keep me motivated. That is, until I started playing Monster Hunter Stories, which is the latest spin-off from the world of Monster Hunter.

Monster Hunter Stories

Monster Hunter Stories appears on the outside to be a kids game, with it’s cutesy character art style and dialogue. The demo, which I haven’t played, is apparently just a play through of the first few minutes of the game. I think this was a mistake on Capcom’s part, because you don’t really get a feel for what you can do in this game until you have unlocked some of the cooler features. Many of the die-hard MH community have scoffed at this game due to the demo, which is sad.

One main difference between Monster Hunter Stories and the main Monster Hunter franchise is the storyline. There are Story Quests and Sub-Quests, with markers pointing to where you need to go on the vast world map. Why markers? Because MHS is an open world game. You can go wherever you want, whenever you want (once you have unlocked that area in the storyline). Feel like just slaying a bunch of docile Slagtoth and collecting herbs? You do you, boo!

Another major difference is the complete overhaul of the battle system. First of all, you befriend monsters and they will help you to battle against other monsters. You fight in a turn based system that uses a rock-paper-scissor mechanic for the normal attacks. But there’s more to it than the game of chance. Your character gets special Rider skills and attacks, based on your weapon. You can control your monster’s moves, which include awesome special attacks. As you and your monster battle cooperatively, you raise your “kinship” meter, which unlocks killer attacks when filled!

On top of the new battle mechanics, you can also customize your monsters, just like in Pokemon. By collecting eggs and hatching tons of monsters, you can transfer a move from one monster to another. Suddenly you can have a Lagombi, who is a giant icy rabbit who prefers frozen tundras, that now can shoot fireballs at enemy monsters. I would say that if you like Pokemon but think the battles are little too tame, give Monster Hunter Stories a shot. You can also battle your monsters in a tournament setting in-game, or via local wireless and online battles. With so many modes of battle, you will find yourself making different sets of monster teams with different strengths so you can take on any opponent! (Sounds a lot like Pokemon, right?)

I will add that on a personal level, I think that Monster Hunter Stories is fantastic for gamers like me who aren’t familiar with all of the elemental types, especially when it comes to monsters from older MH games. This game is helping me to learn which monsters are weak to the different elements in a more natural way than constantly checking Hunter’s Notes.

For the Monster Hunter purists, I will add that you still have all of the collection aspects of the main games in MHS. You still need to collect endless monster materials to forge new weapons, armor and upgrades. All of your favorite monster armor is available in this game. And you will still need to find all the hidden Poogies, of course!

One final thing I really like about MHS is the storyline itself. The Hunters (basically the characters from the main game) don’t like or trust the Riders (your character and other people who develop kinship with monsters) and you face discrimination and adversity at the beginning. One of your friends suffers tragedy and you watch as he transforms into a darker version of himself. I think it’s very interesting subject matter for a “kids game.” Just saying. The Felynes get to play a much larger role in the story as well, which is pretty fun!

I definitely recommend this game, especially if you are new to Monster Hunter. It’s much more approachable than the main series. Keep an open mind and give these Riders a chance!

Advertisements

Share this:

Like this:

Nintendo fans have been begging for YEARS for another Metroid game, and now the time is finally here! Metroid: Samus Returns has been reimagined for the 3DS with beautiful new graphics and controls. To celebrate the big day, there was a fun event held at the Nintendo NY store in New York City. I stopped by to check out the event! Unfortunately I couldn’t stay for it’s entirety so I missed the cosplay contest, but it was still pretty cool!

The event was held in the big upstairs area, and they had a table set out with lots of goodies for everyone in attendance!

Metroid Swag

For those keeping score, we have vinyl Metroid: Samus Returns posters, Metroid head cookies (arranged in the shape of an M!) as well as regular posters for the game. Not bad for freebies!

As guests walked into the event space, the next thing you notice is the huge Metroid backdrop with Samus Aran featured in a classic pose.

Who can resist a photo op? Not me.

Of course I had to get a pic with my favorite Bounty Hunter! #girlcrush

The next feature of the event was the Metroid fan art that had been submitted in advance. It was on full display at the event and the artwork was really fantastic!

Metroid Fan Art

More Metroid Fanart

I wish I had skills like these artists! The event continued on from there, but didn’t make for great photos. There was a mass of people gathered around to play some Name That Tune with Metroid theme music. The Nintendo staff gave away prizes to those who answered correctly!

Sadly, I did not cosplay at this event. I was coming straight from work, so my red Metroid t-shirt was all I could muster. Thankfully, another Zero Suit Samus cosplayer came out to the event, and my friend Peter got a photo with her, so I’ll share it. She looks great – I just wish she had worn a wig! Brunette Samus is pretty cool though.

Peter with Samus Cosplayer!

All in all, it was a great event! I had a lot of fun, and it’s so awesome to see so many people excited for a new Metroid game. I’ve only played it briefly so far, and it’s really hard – just like the original! The new controls take some getting used to, but with some dedication I’ll get there.

It’s definitely nice to see some more great 3DS games coming out, because I really love playing 3DS on the go. It’s a great way for me to pass the time on my commute to work. I know the Nintendo Switch is portable too, but it’s still big and clunky to carry around. Plus it’s more expensive than the 3DS, should something horrible happen and replacement is needed… lol!

In closing, I love going to Nintendo NY events. They are always great! The cookie definitely had way too much fondant but I appreciate the effort and free food. Here’s a picture of my haul, including the event swag, the game, Metroid amiibos and my bonus Metroid keychain! Booyah!

My Metroid Goodies!

Share this:

Like this:

When I learned that Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer was coming out on 6/30 in Japan, I decided that it was finally time to put myself out of my misery. And by that, I mean I finally broke down and bought a Japanese New 3DS system. What do those two things have to do with each other? For those who don’t know, the latest AC game – which I will be calling “ACHHD” for short from now on – utilizes a new Amiibo card peripheral that can only be scanned using NFC technology. That means I could either wait for Play-Asia to ship me the game with the Amiibo NFC-scanning adapter peripheral, or I could buy a Japanese New 3DS (which I call “JP N3DS”) and finally enjoy some faceplates, along with downloading the game to my SD card. I tend to prefer the digital copies of games, and I have been DYING to get my hands on some faceplates. The decision was made, and the order was placed. I opted for the simplistic monochrome K.K. Slider (aka Totakeke) faceplates because I like the matching K.K. Slider theme for the Home Menu. And you know, cuz I have a K.K. Slider plush and he is one of my favorite characters in the game. Chances are that I will be getting more faceplates in the future, but this is a start!

So, after 12pm on 7/29 I was able to start playing the game, thanks to Japan being like 12 hours ahead of the east coast! I’m still waiting for the Amiibo cards to arrive, but they should be here early this week. That didn’t stop me from diving right in and starting the game! Keep in mind that I still don’t speak Japanese and I’m basically playing the game without having a clue what’s going on. But I’m getting by!

PLEASE BE ADVISED – MAJOR ACHHD SPOILERS FROM HERE ON!!

Mayor Neko checking out the break room at her new office.

ACHHD has a totally different format than a regular AC game. You don’t play in “real time” and you don’t have to have an interview with Rover to determine the look of your character. Naturally, I designed my character to be an extension of Mayor Neko of my JP ACNL game. Now that Wasabi is well established, Mayor Neko decided it’s time for a sabbatical of sorts, to try her hand at interior design and get a fresh perspective. She was impressed with the facilities available at her new Happy Home office, complete with a changing room, a sewing machine (that she couldn’t use yet), a salon (also not yet unlocked at the start of the game) and a cute little New 3DS that opens up when you select it. Side bar: The fact that the game designers decided to put this particular New 3DS XL limited edition console in the game makes me feel even more certain that this special edition will be released globally. I mean, why would they put that in the game if it wasn’t going to be for sale in every region?? Fingers crossed that this LE makes it to the states!!

Once Mayor Neko was in her work uniform and ready to start work, she was first tasked with what I can only assume was a practice design. I say this because there was no client involved, it was just to learn how to move furniture and whatnot. For those who are curious, the game is mainly controlled by the stylus, as it allows for furniture to be moved around and rotated easily. You can also make tweaks the old fashioned way, by pushing and pulling using your character, but I find that it’s much faster and more convenient to use the stylus. I’m officially spoiled!! lol

A lovely practice room!

Anyway, the practice theme was quite clearly the Lovely theme. I did the best that I could, and I couldn’t help but feel that I wasn’t provided with the full set. I’m sure the rest will unlock as I progress in the game. How did my design come out? I was super excited that they gave me a painting to use right away, so I made that the featured item of the room!

After that, I was able to work with my first customer! Goldie the adorable doggy was eager to have her new home set up. Now, this is when their requests get a little iffy for me. Obviously, I have no idea what the townies are requesting. Luckily, each design project has requirements such as a chair or a desk that you MUST include, and those tend to be of a certain theme. New townie customers will also unlock new furniture items, so I also check the “New” tab to get an idea of what the theme might be. So far I haven’t received any complaints so I guess I’m doing a pretty good job!

My first happy customer!

Goldie had what I can only assume is a bookworm type of theme. She required a giant bookcase and stacks of books be included in her house. I came up with a design that kind of caters more to an “older” character. What do you guys think? You can’t see it in the photo, but in her house I also included an egg fryer that sizzles the entire time. I think it adds a little something extra. 😛

After every design project is finished, there’s a cute cut-scene where you can take photos and watch the townie enjoying their new digs. It’s super cute. Then you are whisked back to the office (you get a car in this game btw!) and have to “fill out paperwork” which is saving the game. You can only work on one design project per day. However, if you don’t want to save immediately, you can still wander around town and talk to townies before you go in and save and start the next day. What I ended up doing was going back upstairs to the break room and seeing if I could change my clothes, since I had noticed that some clothes had shown up in the New tab when I was working on Goldie’s house.

Mayor Neko’s professional work attire.

You can’t change your shirt, I guess that’s the uniform requirement of the job. But you can change your skirt/pants, shoes, socks, hat and accessories! Mayor Neko thought it might be funny to try a wacky outfit. Let’s see if the customers take her seriously.

OK Readers – I know I’m excited about this game and I could blog about it all day. But should I not write all the details of every single townie customer? Should I stick to highlights? Let me know, otherwise I’m just gonna write about everything!! 😛

Just to sum it up, I think everyone who enjoys Animal Crossing would like this game. I don’t want to say it’s AC-Lite, but it does kinda have all of the home decor design fun without the stress of saving up money, collecting items and then ordering from the catalog. However, it doesn’t fully satisfy your AC needs if you enjoy other things like bug catching, fishing, holidays, etc. because it doesn’t work in real time. So Happy Home Designer is certainly not a REPLACEMENT for the regular Animal Crossing game, but its a fun re-imagining of the same idea. I hope everyone will pick it up when it is released in the west this fall! 🙂

More to come!!!

Advertisements

Share this:

Like this:

Hey guys! It’s been a while since I’ve posted about video games. My bad. It’s mostly because I’m playing three games right now that are taking up a lot of my time! I still check in with my regular games like ACNL and Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, but there’s three games that are really taking over my life right now.

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

I’m a noob to the Monster Hunter series. People have tried to get me into the earlier titles in the series, but I never took the time to try it out. I’d played demos and always thought the controls were too confusing. However, I happen to have the New 3DS XL system and it incorporates the new c-stick camera controls REALLY well. So I decided to pick up the game… I mean, everyone’s playing it! That means it must be good right??

At first I felt kinda bad about hunting these monsters. Especially in the very beginning, they have you slaying these really docile and gentle monsters and I had guilty feelings about it. But once you really get into the action, it’s like, “HEY monster – you’re trying to kill me! Let me kill you first!” and I got over the hunter’s remorse. Now I’m really getting the swing of things, and I can’t believe I didn’t start playing this game sooner. I love games that are content heavy and have a strong multi-player aspect. MH4U incorporates both of these things with extensive quest lists that you can play online with friends, aside from the regular storyline missions. On top of that, you can forge new armor and weapons to upgrade your skills and take on bigger foes. And did I mention that you collect KITTIES?? There are these helpers that you can enlist called Palicoes, and they are all cat-like creatures that do amazing support work during battles. Some add more attack power, others replenish health, some can throw bombs, others focus on defense… you can customize your Palico team to suit your style. I love the Palicoes because they add this element of cuteness to an otherwise gory and somewhat violent game. It’s a LOT of fun and I am down to hunt with friends anytime! Evenings are best for me to get on WIFI. 🙂

Story of Seasons

Am I the only one who still wants to call this game Harvest Moon? I can’t get the new title to stick in my brain. Anyway, now that Natsume has parted ways with Marvelous and XSEED, I have to call this game Story of Seasons. Cuz Natsume owns the rights to “Harvest Moon” in America and that’s how it goes sometimes. (BTW, don’t try the new Harvest Moon: Lost Valley game unless you’re into Minecraft, because that’s basically what Natsume has done with the franchise here in the US. It’s not pretty.)

Story of Seasons brings us the familiar art style and gameplay features we have grown to know and love in the HM series. I think this is the best farming game available on 3DS, and that’s saying a lot because I really loved “Tale of Two Towns.” I had some issues with “A New Beginning” due to too much customization. I don’t want to worry about decorating the entire damn town, my homestead is enough thanks! Story of Seasons tones down the customizing to a more feasible amount. You can still craft new objects for your farm and place them wherever you want (the same applies to furniture in your house btw!) but you’re limited to your own fields. However, that doesn’t mean you are stuck with just one field area. A cool new feature of Story of Seasons allows you to compete with other farmers in town for some extra fields that are specifically set up for certain types of crops. For example, my character is renting the Root Crops field area in addition to my main farmland. This allows me to free up some space on my homestead for grains and tall crops, and plant all of my root crops in this satellite field instead. But it’s not that simple, you have to defend your rented fields every season by performing well in contests or shipping lots of goods. Yep that’s right, farming just got a lot more competitive!

I haven’t gotten too far in my game yet, only up to early Summer Year 1, but I’m raising cows, a horse and a chicken (with another chick on the way! lol) along with my crops. You get a lot of space on your farm, and you can build multiple barns, chicken coops and other facilities on the homestead. Basically, if you are unable to rent one of the special public fields, you can still grow all types of crops on your own farm, so no worries! Another great feature is the farming itself. Now you use your hoe to plow a plot that grows up to 9 crops at one time. No more watering each individual crop. Now you just water a plot and all of the crops are saturated. Just makes everything that much easier and less time consuming. Leaves you more time to socialize and find a sweetheart in town! I’m still working on that part… lol

Pokemon Rumble World

This game has only been out for a day and I’m already obsessed with it. This is the Pokemon Company’s latest “freemium” game, meaning you pay nothing to download it, but there are a lot of features and items that you can only get if you pay for premium in-game currency. Since the game just came out, there is a sale for the premium currency so I snagged that. It’s not very expensive either.

I’ve been playing the Rumble series since it first came out on the Wii. I love it! I enjoy the action/adventure gameplay, it’s a nice change from the RPG format of the regular Pokemon games. Plus you can take photos while you play. And its a simple enough game that you can pick it up easily and play a few rounds. As far as the actual gameplay goes, it’s basically the same as it always had been. You press A for one move and B for another (if you have two moves registered) and beat up other Toy Pokemon dungeon-crawl style. A lot of the music is the same too, I have to add.

But here’s what’s new in Pokemon Rumble World:

Mii’s! You import your Mii, who can be customized with new outfits. Other Mii’s will start showing up too via StreetPass and SpotPass, who will help you in the game! Some will let you visit areas for a discounted price, others will give you premium currency if you save them from Toy Pokemon, and more.

Hot Air Balloons. In previous games in this series, you had areas to navigate, and you selected the one that you wanted to battle. Now you have to ride Hot Air Balloons, which have to be “refilled” afterwards. This is the main time when the “freemium” aspect comes into play. If you want to challenge the same area twice, you’ll need to spend premium currency. Or wait for a set amount of time, which is indicated in the selection screen. This wait time can be over an hour. You also need to spend premium currency to purchase new Hot Air Balloons that will take you to other areas.

Premium Currency. Let me explain this a little bit more. I’m making it sound evil. You can actually EARN premium currency easily throughout the game. There are certain (once a day) areas where you can earn premium currency, and you get even more for free if you get a lot of StreetPasses and interact with friends. It seems to me that the game provides enough premium currency for free to get you through the main parts of the game without paying anything. But if you’re impatient or want to wear a specific premium shirt design, that may cost you out of pocket. It’s up to you if you want to spend money!

There are other new features too, but I won’t spoil everything. This game is FREE to download from the eShop right now, so definitely check it out and see for yourself! My only criticism of Rumble World is the lack of a mini map. The top screen gives you arrows that indicate where the Toy Pokemon are, but I preferred seeing them on a map instead. It’s not a huge deal, just one little thing that I miss about the older games in the series.

Well, as you can imagine, I’ve certainly got my hands full here! All three of these games are really fun and it’s always a struggle to decide which game to play. Rumble World is best for short spurts, since there’s that whole time limit aspect. Monster Hunter can be very intense and time consuming, so it’s ideal to play at home when I have free time. Story of Seasons is low key, so I enjoy playing it when I need to relax, or after an intense hunt in MH4U. They compliment each other nicely.

Soo…. what games have YOU been playing??

Advertisements

Share this:

Like this:

Hey everyone! Super Smash Bros. Wii U is coming out THIS FRIDAY (11/21/14) and I got a chance to play it early at a demo event this past weekend. I was really excited about the new Animal Crossing stage! But when I saw it in all it’s glory… I realized it was a bit dated.

Am I the only one who cares about this? I touched on this a little in my last blog entry. The Villager, the Wii U Animal Crossing stage… everything except for Tortimer Island in Smash 3DS is actually based on Animal Crossing: City Folk, and not Animal Crossing: New Leaf. I guess I’m the only one who thinks this is weird? I’m sure it’s a result of games like these being so content-heavy that production takes years, and when they were working on the Smash game ACCF might have been the only option for the game designers to use as a model. But personally it kind of bothers me! I’m just being nit-picky. I think they should have updated the look of the Villager characters to match ACNL, at least.

ACNL Female Villager

Again, notice that these SSB4 Villager characters are short and well, wide around the middle. The female at the end is jumping and you can see her little undies, which was a trademark (and pet-peeve of mine) of the female characters in ACCF and earlier. I was happy when they changed the look of the human characters in ACNL, making them a little more proportionate and girls’ underwear not visible lol! I think this would have been an improvement for Smash players too, because the way the Villager was designed, the character is more of a shorter, child size character like Ness or Toon Link. I would have pictured the Villager as a medium height character in Smash Bros., especially since the villagers are almost as tall as the tall bears in ACNL.

Aside from the Villager character design in Smash, my other observation is about the Wii U Animal Crossing stage. (NOTE: SPOILER ALERT!!!) It’s a fantastic stage, excellent for competitive play and incorporates the “rolling log” effect of the Animal Crossing games, which is really cool! The graphics look amazing. So amazing that you can see the Town Gate all the way in the background… wait a sec. Town Gate?? This is a feature from the Animal Crossing City Folk series! In ACNL, there are train tracks, the Train Station and a stairway to the Shopping District at the north-most part of town.

See those adorable Animal Crossing characters that stand along the background of the flat area in the stage? Sure, you might recognize the three pictured here, but during the stage these characters change! I saw Frillard and Serena appear in that part of the stage a few times, and players new to ACNL will certainly not know who they are lol! Plus, you can clearly see a sign for the bus stop, which does not exist in ACNL.

Another feature of this stage in Smash is that you actually follow a bus to the city. It’s really cute! I don’t have any images of that so no major spoilers here but I just think it’s interesting that they chose to model this stage after the Wii game instead of the latest 3DS game. I know it’s not a big deal and I’m a fan of throw-backs too… it’s just not what I was expecting I guess.

Tortimer Island

Really can’t complain though. At least Animal Crossing is represented in the game! And we do have Tortimer Island, which is a really awesome stage in Super Smash Bros. 3DS. I love this stage because of the awesome music, its like a remix of the songs Kapp’n sings on the boat ride to the island! Plus you can get eaten by sharks and harvest fruit from the trees. It’s one of my favorite stages!

Wouldn’t it be great if all of the ACNL animal townies were assist trophies? Or all the gyroids?? You know, maybe they should just make an Animal Crossing/Fighting Game crossover series to get more people interested in the franchise lol! I’d play it…

Share this:

Like this:

Pretty much all of my other games can just kiss me goodbye for the next few weeks, because I’ve found the ultimate game for me!!

Disney’s Magical World is everything I’d hoped it would be and more. It’s like a combination of all of my favorite types of games, from Animal Crossing to Harvest Moon, with a touch of Diner Dash/Cake Mania, plus a little third-person action/adventure element too… all set in the Disney world, of course!

I fell in love with this game immediately. I enjoy collection games where you have to seek out and collect as many items as you can, and that’s what this game has in spades. Every area of the in-game world has special themed collectables, which you use to create new dishes for your Cafe, or to assemble new clothing sets, and craft themed furniture items too!

When I discovered that the 100 Acre Wood was the area where you can farm, I was so excited! I love Winnie the Pooh so much. After I planted some crops, I noticed that Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, etc. would come over and help me water the crops and pull weeds! How freakin’ cute is that???

So far I’ve unlocked areas for the following Disney themes: Cinderella, Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland and Aladdin. (Note that I’ve only been playing the game for like 4 days lol!) I literally cannot stop playing this game. I’ve heard some criticism on the “grind” but I don’t even notice. I love collecting everything, and as you play further in the game certain collectables become extremely easy to obtain and it all becomes second nature. The action/adventure aspect is so much fun because you can craft new clothing that gives you better defense, and you can increase your offense by upgrading your magic wand. It’s so cool!

I love being able to customize my Mii by wearing different outfits. You can put together your own look by wearing different Disney themed hats, shirts, pants and shoes. On top of that, you can unlock costumes, Quest outfits and formal wear. I’ve already completed the Cinderella gown, so I get to run around dressed up in a fancy ball gown! It’s adorable.

Honestly, I could go on all day about how much I love this game. I hope I don’t beat it too quickly. All I can think about as I write this is how much I want to play the game. I’m obsessed.

There are two criticisms that I have of this game. First of all, there is no Wi-Fi (aside from DLC) for online multiplayer. Secondly, while there is free DLC, there is also paid DLC. As of now there’s only like $5 worth of DLC you can buy, but I can see that easily adding up over time as they release new themes. I’m a sucker for this stuff so I might be in trouble lol!

Advertisements

Share this:

Like this:

If you haven’t seen the latest Nintendo Direct, or rather, the Smash Bros. Direct from 4/8/14… well you are missing out. The half hour long presentation has taken the Nintendo community by storm! New game footage and details have been revealed about the upcoming Smash Bros. games for Nintendo Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.

There is just TOO much to hype about in the upcoming Smash games!! So many new Pokemon playable characters, the Animal Crossing Villager character, new stages, new Final Destination stage options, new game modes for the 3DS version… and the graphics for the Wii U version are just so fantastic, I can’t get over it! If you haven’t checked out the Nintendo Direct, watch it here. Even if you’ve never played Smash Bros. before, now is the time to get into this franchise.

Can I just say that I totally LOVE Sakurai?? His hair is awesome! He clearly is a huge Pokemon fan, has a hilarious sense of humor, and definitely represents what I consider to be “my generation” of gamers. Is it bad that I secretly wish Sakurai would host all future Nintendo Direct videos? 😛

The bad news is that we have to wait. Super Smash Bros. 3DS won’t be released until this summer. The Wii U version is slated to be released this WINTER (holiday season no doubt) so we have a while before that new challenger will approach. Not to mention we don’t have any actual concrete release dates. I hate that! My main worry is that the Wii U version will eventually be pushed back to 2015. Fingers crossed that the developers stay on schedule. Super Smash Bros. is going to be huge for StreetPass communities, and I can’t wait!! So what am I supposed to do until then?

Good news! Lots of cool games are coming out in the coming weeks and months. Tomorrow, April 11th is the release date for Disney Magical World, which I’m sure many of my readers are psyched about! If you haven’t heard of it, it’s kind of like a cross between Disney Infinity and Animal Crossing, with a touch of Harvest Moon. You’re in the Disney world, and you get to interact with the Disney characters in a similar way to how Animal Crossing works. From what I understand, it follows the daily calendar. But you also get to gather items and collect things, which you use to craft OTHER things, which is why I say it’s also kind of like Harvest Moon. Plus there’s some action/battling and you also run a cafe. Everything I like! If you want to learn more, check out this trailer:

Lots of cool games are coming out in May as well. Namely, the awesome new Kirby Triple Deluxe and Mario Golf are both slated to be released early May. At the end of May comes Mario Kart 8 for Wii U, which also looks to be AMAZING. Sweet HD graphics on Rainbow Road? Yes please!!

So hopefully all of those new games will tide us over until the release of Smash on 3DS later this summer. I know I barely have time to play the games I have… I bought Yoshi’s New Island recently and have barely had a chance to play it because I’m still backlogged! I was rushing to beat Pokemon X before the PVGC, but now that the big competition is over I can put Pokemon down for a minute. What I really want to do is finish Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward which I had rented from GameFly. I’m like half way through it so that’s my goal.

And if you are wondering… I have NO idea how I am going to manage 3 ACNL towns as well as Disney Magical World. I haven’t even played ACNL in over a week, I’m sad to say. There are just not enough hours in the day! I’m hoping I will make some time to play games this weekend, even though I will be in Boston for PAX East.

But what can I say? I have a ton of awesome games to play so I really can’t complain can I? 😀

Share this:

Like this:

So sorry I haven’t written a blog in a while. Specifically, a GAMING related blog. I started a new job recently, and even MORE recently blew my back out so it’s been tough to find time to write.

Despite my back feeling like crap, last weekend JDubz and I took a trip up to Sturbridge, MA to attend the 2014 Spring Regionals of the Pokemon Video Game Championships (PVGC). I had been preparing a team for a month so I wasn’t going to skip the competition!

Want to hear about my team/strategy? If you have any suggestions please comment!

My PVGC Team

Introducing my team!!

Blastoise

Gengar

Kangashkan

Dragonite

Marowak

Zoroark

You might think… that’s kind of a weird doubles team. I’m not a big fan of gimmicks or relying on status moves to win battles. I’m more of a guns blazing, offense-only kind of player. So my strength is in having Pokemon that either deal out hard hits or Pokemon that can really roll with the punches. My team is a little misleading. I only have Zoroark in there to throw people off of their game. He’s not EV trained or anything, just there to make people wonder “Am I battling Zoroark right now?” during turn 1. Dragonite, while awesome, is also just there for show. Dragonite is my fairy-bait. Since my Gengar is a fairy-killer, I have the popular Dragonite on my team so people will feel compelled to bring out their fairy types into battle in case I’m using a dragon type.

The four Pokemon I always use are Blastoise and Marowak (team A) and Gengar and Kangashkan (team B). Marowak has Lightning Rod ability, which will keep Blastoise safe. I keep Gengar and Kang together for fighting ghost types, plus Gengar has Levitate to keep him safe from Kang’s Earthquake. Both Blastoise and Kang have their Mega Stones as held items so I have options against my opponents. When fighting a team with ghost types, I keep Kangashkan with his Scrappy ability and Mega-Evolve Blastoise. Otherwise, I go Mega with Kang for that extra hit that you get with Parental Bond, which really helps Power-Up Punch.

Of course, my team is vulnerable to many types and has plenty of holes. But in this generation, there’s no real safe type combination, so everyone just goes with their personal style. My team didn’t hold up well against the tough competition at PVGC, but I did win my first match because of my team’s synergy. My opponent didn’t account for Marowak’s Lightning Rod and got locked into a harmless Lightning Bolt attack with his Choice Scarf on Gardevoir. It’s usually careless errors like that which determine who wins and who loses. Unfortunately for me, that first win made me cocky and I made some questionable choices in my second two battles.

After 3 matches, they announced there would be a lunch break. JDubz found out that if you had any losses by this point, you had no chance at Top 8, and since my back was killing me we decided to call it a day. We still had a lot of fun and I know that while my team struggled a bit in doubles… it will be great for singles battles at PAX! (Btw if you are interested in learning who won the regionals, check this link out!)

That’s right, this upcoming weekend is PAX East 2014. My back is still messed up so I probably won’t be able to walk around all weekend at PAX. However, since Nintendo isn’t showcasing at the convention, I probably won’t be missing too much. But what I DON’T plan to miss is my panel… the Pokemon X&Y: Competitive Trainer Seminar! I’m hosting a panel, along with JDubz, Pete from SPNYC, and KC and JV from the Pocket Players on Saturday, April 12 from 1-2pm. I was really afraid I might miss the panel, but I think my back can survive for an hour. I put too much work into making this panel happen, I refuse to not attend! The only other thing I’m going to make sure to try out is the PAX Pokemon League. It’s a popular singles competition where you can seek out and challenge gym leaders on a few different skill tiers. If you beat the designated gym leaders, you get a badge. Collect all of the badges in your tier and you can fight the PAX Elite 4! How cool is that?? So I’m excited to try out my teams in a singles environment.

Wish me luck!

Advertisements

Share this:

Like this:

Oh hey, did ya know? Pokemon Bank is officially available to download in North America! After over a month of delays, no official release date and lots of impatient speculation, we finally have the holy grail for Pokemon fans! With Pokemon Bank, we can now backup and store up to 3,000 Pokemon on Nintendo’s newly offered cloud-based banking software. All those Pokemon that you’ve been transferring up through the generations can now be safely saved for years to come! Most likely using Bank will make transferring to future generation games much easier as well. Rejoice in the free 30 day trial! After that you will have to pay an annual fee.

Now, when I say you can transfer Pokemon that you’ve been using from past generations, I don’t mean all of them. Hacked Pokemon and many of the special event Pokemon from past gen’s cannot be transferred so they will forever remain in the past. HeartGold and SoulSilver fans suffer greatly from this limitation. HG was definitely my absolute favorite Pokemon in the franchise, I loved walking around with my Pokemon and I especially loved all of the special event Pokemon and cut-scenes that you would unlock through different WIFI and in-store DLC offerings in that game. My personal favorite was the Spiky-Eared Pichu, and like many other past-gen event Pokemon, he can’t be transferred.

For Spiky-Eared Pichu to be available in HG/SS, you had to download a special “Pikachu-colored Pichu” DLC (which was also cute!) and take it to the mysterious shrine in Ilex Forest. I think you might have also needed Celebi or something but I don’t remember the details. Anyway, in Ilex Forest if you have the right event Pokemon, it unlocked a cut-scene where Spiky-Eared Pichu pops out and does a little chase/dance thing with the Pikachu-colored Pichu. Sorry if the facts here are fuzzy, but it was several years ago and I apparently didn’t take any screenshots lol! Needless to say, neither the Pikachu-colored Pichu nor the Spiky-Eared Pichu can be transferred outside of HG/SS. Don’t even get me started on the Surfing Pikachu in HG/SS, which you had to get over 7,500 steps per day on your Pokewalker on a special DLC walking course and THEN you still had to hunt and successfully capture the rare Pikachu using the Pokewalker mini game. Yep, non-transferrable, because it had an “illegal HM” so the Black and White in-game Transfer Machine wouldn’t accept it. Really unfair.

I just don’t like all of that hard work wasted. You get emotionally attached to a Pokemon that you have to work to get, so the fact that Pokemon like Spiky-Eared Pichu can’t be transferred to Pokemon Bank almost makes the entire feature pointless. It’s these super special RARE Pokemon (and their rare sprites too) that make these Pokemon the ones that I’d actually WANT and NEED to have saved through the years. But no, they are doomed to sit alone in the Box never to be seen again, unless I dust off the cartridge for old times sake.

All I really want at this point is for The Pokemon Company to re-release some of these special event Pokemon as DLC for Gen VI so that we can at least enjoy them again. (And not only release them in JAPAN!! I know that Japanese players were given a Flying Pikachu DLC in Gen V if they went to a local train station and downloaded the DLC, and those are very hard to come by legally if you live outside of Japan.) Older gamers such as myself especially wanted Pokemon Bank for nostalgic reasons, so if we could have some of our extra-special Pokemon back, it would really make the experience more enjoyable.

Please, someone hear my plea!! Bring back Spiky-Eared Pichu!! 😦

Advertisements

Share this:

Like this:

UPDATE ON WASABI:

Fans of Wasabi can breathe easy. It seems that Wasabi is no longer in imminent danger of being destroyed! I did a bit of research on my game loading slowly, and saw that I wasn’t the only one experiencing similar problems. I was reading some different forums, and many suggested that perhaps the SD card was to blame. I investigated this a bit, by playing some of the other apps and software that I have stored on my JP3DS’ SD card. Every other game I tried ran fine, and there were no more issues regarding the A button acting strange. I determined that it couldn’t be the SD card. (For the record, I’m using a Lexar 4GB SD Card.)

More research turned up this forum thread, which was very interesting. The original thread creator describes that he is facing a problem that is almost identical to mine, only my game wasn’t crashing, just taking a long time to load. This poster describes how it could be a digital software issue, an SD card issue, and then there was one more factor that he described in his thread:

Wow, just wow… My town crashed for the sixth time today, 3 days after I formatted that SD card into FAT32. When it happened, I was playing online with two other players in my town with the “Best Friends” function activated and my town has quite a lot of bushes, flowers, trees, and whatnot… Most of the other towns I visited are usually less jam-packed than I do. It might be due of the complexity of my town for raising the crash rate over time.

This post got me thinking about Wasabi. What was different about Wasabi as of late that would cause it to act differently than it had in the past year? Ohhh right… Wasabi was completely overrun with bamboo at this time. Then I started thinking about how Animal Crossing save files have been notoriously large (remember how you needed an entire dedicated save cart to run AC: Game Cube?) and maybe all that bamboo (plus everything that comes with bamboo, such as new spawned shoots/cracks every few days, loads of rotten shoots that didn’t have the room to grow into real bamboo, which I hadn’t been shoveling up) was causing the load time to slow. Think about it, the game has to render all of the townies, houses, flowers, bushes, public works, your full catalog… and now I was forcing it to render hundreds of bamboo stalks, shoots, cracks and rotten shoots all over my town. It sounded like a VERY plausible cause.

So I did what any reasonable person would do. I grabbed my golden axe and went on a rampage chopping down all the bamboo! I left all of the bamboo stumps because they look pretty cool, like wierd mini warp pipes or something. Guess what? It seems to have done the trick! As soon as I saved Wasabi with it’s new “bamboo stump” style, the game loaded up much more quickly! What a relief!

My advice: While it’s awesome and fun to decorate your town with all of these new features like shrubs and bamboo and public works, remember that aesthetically (and apparently from a coding perspective) less is more. You don’t need to have something in every single square inch of your town. In fact, doing so seems to kill your game! I don’t know if anyone had the same issues with a cartridge, but at least if you have a digital download, use caution! But personally I think it was the living bamboo with all of the spawning and rotten shoots that was the main issue in my game.

Having said all of that, the good news is that the Setsubun Festival is ON! If you are still interested in participating in the festival, which I will have open in Wasabi on Monday 2/3 from 9PM-11PM EST, please visit the event page here:

The main reason I ask you to RSVP on the event page is so that I know how many to expect. If I don’t have it already, please comment on the event page with your friend code so that I can add you to my system. I will also be trying out a new format for this JP event. Using the StreetPass Long Island Twitch Channel, I will be streaming this event live on the internet. Hopefully this will make it easier for people to see who is coming and going, and when they should pop in. Our Twitch channel also has a chat room, so hopefully the power combo of a live stream AND a chat room will make the experience a little smoother for everyone. Keep in mind that the chat room on Twitch is not compatible with iOS, so you’ll want to be on a real computer to participate in that way.

Hope to see you all there! Fingers crossed that we won’t have any more loading problems in Wasabi!